José Manuel Serrano EsparzaSPANISHGeneral René
Cogny, commander in chief of the French forces in the área of Tonkin (North
Vietnam), was photographed by Robert Capa inside the Morane-Saulnier MS-500
liaison aircraft (in which was also the correspondent for Life magazine John
Mecklin) during the trip from Hanoi to Nam Dinh on May 24, 1954.

This highly
meaningful picture reveals faithfully the definition of struggling photographer
applied by Dirck Halstead to the great war photographer, because Capa
masterfully captures the French general being thoughtful and worried.

René Cogny knows
that the war is lost and that the life of thousands of men depends on his
decisions, because he has had to simultaneously tackle two fronts after the
route of transport between Hanoi and Haiphong has been greatly disrupted by
Nguyen Giap by sending the Viet Minh 320th Division, complemented by
14 regional battalions and three autonomous regiments, attacking at the same
time the French outposts located in the rural zones between Phu Ly, Nam Dinh,
Thai Binh and Thanh Ne.

Once more,
Capa´s ability, sensitivity and nose to perceive and photograph the most
representative moments, with an exceedingly accurate timing when pressing the
shutter release button of his camera, stands out.

On the other
hand, this image isn´t only the result of the photographic act during the
exposure of the Kodak Super-XX High Speed Panchromatic black and white film but
stems from a previous exhaustive work of observation of the character, his
movements and reactions inside the plane by Capa, from the very moment of the
aircraft took off at Hanoi Gia Lam airport, approximately half an hour
before.

In addition,
this very interesting picture is likewise relevant since it shows the perfect
synergy for handheld shots between:

a) The Contax IIa rangefinder camera

from 1950 (manufactured by Zeiss Ikon A.G.Stuttgart, improving the
already masterpiece of optical and mechanical engineering Contax II from 1936
created by Zeiss engineer Hubert Nerwin - first model featuring combined
rangefinder and viewfinder in a single window- ) in which the shutter was
redesigned and greatly improved, replacing the connecting cloth of the curtains
by geartrains, as well as reducing the number of components and the rangefinder
baselength from 90 mm to 73 mm (with a 0.66x magnification and an affective
base length of 48 mm), which enabled a more comfortable grabbing of the camera.

b) The Carl Zeiss
Jena Sonnar 5 cm f/2 with one layer T antireflection coating. Such T coating,
patented by Alexander Smakula in November 1935, rendered brilliant and high
contrast images and was the fruit of twelve years of research by Carl Zeiss
Jena from the study of the 1923 prototype CZJ 8,5 cm f/1.75 aimed at improving
the quality of the lenses coating the surface of the optical elements with very
thin layers of special materials which bettered the light transmission.

c) A highly
experienced photojournalist who fights to his utmost with his 35 mm rangefinder
camera within the very tight space of the aircraft to get the picture, since
under normal circumstances this kind of plane can only transport the pilot and
one passenger, so Capa and Mecklin (whom Donald M. Winslow has given his seat,
because there wasn´t enough room for a third journalist) are exceedingly
crammed behind the general, in such a way that Capa can barely move.

And though
getting a high technical quality is not the priority in this sort of
photojournalistic pictures, it´s really amazing the resolving power delivered (watch
for instance the excellent detail in the general´s nose and the extinguisher)
by the lens designed by the genius Ludwig Bertele twenty-two years before, for
the picture is made within a very short distance, probably at f/5.6 and from a
position very near the minimum focusing distance.

It speaks
volumes of the Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5 cm f/2 T used by Capa and designed by
Ludwig Bertele in 1932 in an utterly handcrafted way, using a lot of thousands
of hours of manual tracing of light rays throughout the creation stages,
without any help of computers or electronic calculators, only taking advantage
of his impressive knowledge on optics, physics, mathematics and available
optical glasses of the time, as well as making an extensive use of tables of
logarithms, two years before Konrad Zuse started in 1934 the conceptual genesis
of digital computers, which brought about two years later the Z1 (featuring
sixty-four words, each one containing 22 bits) and the Z2 from 1938, which used
800 transmitters, managing to create in 1941 the Z3, first wholly operative
digital computer in the world, and in 1946 the Z4, the most sophisticated of
his digital computers (including the revolutionary Plankalkül software based on
arithmetic logics and the application of pure states on doing the numerical
calculi) that was the embryo of the 1951 Zuse Z5, first computer used by Leica
to help in the design of its lenses and sporting plenty of electromechanical
relays, making possible to attain a seventy times faster designing speed of
high luminosity and top-notch quality photographic lenses than with manual
calculi, thanks to the acceleration with floating coma calculum, which made
possible to a great extent the automatization of improvements in optical
designs, the increase in production capacity with new optical glasses and a
far superior manufacturing quickness, which resulted in the launching into photographic market by Leica of the 7 element in 6 groups collapsible Summicron 50 mm f/2 Version 1 in 1953, the first one including the remarkable LaK9 rare earth glass.

And this was a
turning point in the history of photographic lenses, because both the
Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 First Version from 1959 and the Summicron-M 50 mm f/2
Version 2 (1956-1968), available in rigid mount and dual range (sharing
identical optical design and reformulated with respect to the previous retractable
Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 Version 1 1953-1960, increasing its resolving power and
contrast, as well as bettering image quality at the nearest focusing
distances) were feasible thanks to the synergy between the tremendous
knowledge possessed by the Leitz optical designers and mechanics and the use of
the Zuse Z5 computer installed in Wetzlar since 1952.

Ludwig Bertele,
one of the greatest designers of photographic lenses ever. Among his abundant
achievements highlight the legendary Ernostar f/2 lens from 1923 (for the 6 x
4.5 cm medium format Ernemann Ermanox, which allowed the dawn of the agile and
dynamic indoor photojournalism with available light embodied by the towering
figure of Erich Salomon), the birth in 1931 of the Sonnar scheme (derived from
the 1924 Ernostar Type 2 but featuring a lesser quantity of optical groups,
managing to greatly reduce the light scattering as well as generating a
superior contrast) that made possible the creation of the not less mythical
Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5 cm f/1.5 from 1932 and Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5 cm f/2
from 1932, without forgetting the Carl Zeiss Jena Biogon 3,5 cm f/2.8 from
1935, the Sonnar 180 mm f/2.8 from 1935 and others, which were followed after
the Second World War by extraordinary photogrammetric wideangle lenses as the
large format Aviogon from 1950 sporting a 90º coverage, the large format Super
Aviogon from 1956 providing a 120º coverage, the Biogon 38 mm f/4.5 medium
format 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ for Hasselblad cameras and many others.

It all proves
clearly that the design by Ludwig Bertele of both the Carl Zeiss
Jena Sonnar 5 cm f/2 featuring 6 elements in 3 groups (used by Capa to get the
picture of general Cogny inside the plane) and the Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5 cm
f/1.5 sporting 7 elements in 3 groups make up one of the greatest feats in the History of Optics, since they were created with 100% manual designing and
building parameters, without any help of computers or software whatsoever, with
no aspherical surfaces and an strenuous stint of three years, started in 1929
and finished in 1932, nothing less than eighty-one years ago.

As a matter of
fact, both lenses are excellent even to the very exacting current standards of
quality, already in XXI Century, in which there are tons of objectives whose
optical formula includes aspherical elements and there are available very powerful
computers boasting highly sophisticated software programs, albeit when tackling
the designing of ultraluminous class reference lenses in different focal
lengths the key factor goes on being the personal touches provided by the best
optical designers based on their expertise.

It´s therefore
not surprising the unquestionable fact that throughout nothing less than
twenty-two years, between 1932 and 1954, the highly luminous lenses for 24 x 36
mm format photographic cameras made by Carl Zeiss (which had top class
designers like Carl Paul Goerz, Willy Merté, Robert Richter, Sylvester
Hubert, Ludwig Bertele himself and others) were by far the qualitative world
benchmarks (above all the extraordinary for the time Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5
cm f/1.5 from 1932 and the excellent Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5 cm f/2 from 1932 , Carl Zeiss Jena
Tessar 50 mm f/2.8 from 1932 and Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 85 mm f/2 – both in its
version of 6 elements in 3 groups previous to the Second World War and in the
one featuring 7 elements in 3 groups launched into market in 1951-, without
forgetting the Biogon 35 mm f/2.8 from 1937 featuring 5 elements in 3 groups
and the Topogon 25 mm f/4 from 1950 including 4 elements in 4 groups), to such
an extent that among all the lenses manufactured by Leica between mid twenties
and 1954, only the Leitz Elmar 5 cm f/3.5 designed by Max Berek could challenge
Carl Zeiss standard objectives, although with much lesser luminosity.

The picture made
by Capa to General Cogny inside the Morane-Saulnier MS-500 liaison aircraft corresponds
to a tipping point year in the optical and mechanical evolution of 50 mm
ultraluminous lenses, which have been and keep on being the quality yardstick
of each brand, and is a good example of the formidable symbiosis between a 35 mm
rangefinder camera built without any qualitative compromises and a rather
experienced war photographer like Capa to carry out the mission for which they
were created: the capturing of great images, even under the most extreme
conditions.

In this regard,
though there was a lot of available light inside the cabin of the aircraft
thanks to its transparent cockpit design optimized for reconnaissance tasks,
which enabled to stop down in the range f/5.6-f/11 without any problem,
circumstances for Capa weren´t favourable on trying to get this picture: he
had to work very near the minimum focusing distance of the camera, he had
barely any space to move his arms, because he was behind general Cogny, very cramped
next to John Mecklin, and the slight rattling generated by the 240 h.p Argus As
10 inverted V-8 air-cooled 90º piston engine of the STOL Morane-Saulnier MS-500
Criquet liaison plane (which is essentially a Fieseler FI 156 Storch with
aluminum wings) generated risk of blurred picture because of lack of precise
focus or camera shaking while the shutter was open, but the very wide 73 mm rangefinder
baselength of the Contax IIa enabling a very accurate focusing, the non
existence of a swivelling up and down mirror, the balance of masses of the
camera body and above all the fight and experience of the photographer striving
after getting the image, overcome the difficulties.

As a matter of fact,
during his career as a professional photographer Capa had already made other
excellent pictures from a hugely close distance, surprising the persons
photographed, as for example the Close-Up of Three Workers, Two of Them Wearing
Beret and One with Moustache and Hat in Saint Ouen During the Sit-Down Strike
at the Factory of the Building Firm Lavalette in May 1936; A Supporter of the
Popular Front in Paris in 1936, wearing glasses and hat, captured by Capa at
point blank range from neck upwards while he´s raising his right fist and is
rendered slightly out of focus, also depicting the left fist of another
demonstrator located on the left, behind him, on whom Bob plays the focus,
providing a huge dramatism to the scene; Ernest Hemingway in Sun Valley (Idaho)
Reading Some Typewritten Texts With a Pencil in His Right Hand and Some Light
Entering Through a Window in October 1941; A German Parachutist Captured by U.S
Troops in the South of Bastogne (Belgium) on December 23.26 1944 (he is wearing
gloves, snow can be seen in the background and Capa photographs him by surprise
from an exceedingly short distance and a framing from chest upwards), the
picture of three American parachutists made inside an airplane of the 17th
United States Airborne Division on May 24, 1945 a few minutes before dropping
on the German city of Wesel; Two Jewish Boys During the First Rosh Hashanah
Office held at a Synagogue of Berlin on September 7, 1945 (Capa is just in
front of them and captures them by surprise shooting at f/2.8 and a sloe
shutter speed while both of them are attentively reading the Torah – the one
located on the right of the image is pointing at a passage of the text with the
index finger of his left hand, while the one on the left, also highly absorbed,
has the front side of his right hand leaned on his chin, the book being
rendered out of focus and the beret of the boy on the left slightly unfocused);
Pablo Picasso and his son Claude in Golfe-Juan, France, in August 1948, in
which Capa surprises the
painter being joyful while he plays with the smiling child whom he holds with
both hands, the photographer masterfully capturing the father´s enthralled and
full of passion gesture, enhanced by some veins of his neck appearing swollen
just at that moment.Needless to say
that Capa would have made the photograph even if he had only had a Kodak Brownie
1900 with meniscus, because he was born to

lunes, 25 de noviembre de 2013

The Leica M3
Chrome with serial number 1000000 made in 1960 and matching a Leitz Wetzlar Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 DR with Near Focusing Attachment became the highlight of the 24th
Camera Auction held at Westlicht Vienna on 24 November, 2013, reaching a price
of 840,000 euros, much more than the starting estimate between 400,000-500,000
euros.

Peter Coeln, Founder and Owner of Westlicht Photography and Camera Auctions, Ostlicht Gallery, Leica Shop Vienna and Westlicht Museum, holding the Millionth Leica M3 (made in 1960) and the Leica I Model C Luxus (manufactured in 1930) sold during the 24th Camera Auction held in Westlicht Vienna on November 24, 2013. A recognized authority on Leica cameras and lenses and all kind of photographic stuff of different brands and formats, this visionary man (who has had the wisdom of choosing world class experts on Leica like Paul-Henry van Hasbroeck, Lars Netopil, Ottmar Michaely, Zoltan Fejér, Dr Bahman Bawendi, James E. Cornwall, Peter Göllner, Larry Gubas, Mayumi Kobayashi, Uli Koch, Jim McKeown, Dr, Milos Mladek, Dr. Wolfgang Netolitzky, Bernd K. Otto, Dieter Scheiba and others to often counsel him) knew to understand the immense historical significance and prestige of the Leica brand and has been one of the key figures in the current remarkable worldwide renaissance of Leica, something really astounding if we bear in mind that the mythical German photographic firm was about to disappear in 2003, shortly before another visionary man, Dr. Andreas Kauffmann, had the brainstorm and decision to save the brand.

This historical
camera made in 1960 and featuring a fantastic mint cosmetic condition had previously been
displayed at the Leitz Museum with original sticker M 964 on its base plate and
had belonged to the collection of Surat Osathanugrah, President of the Royal Photographic
Society of Thailand, who died in 2008.

Back view of the Millionth Leica, the M3 Chrome Single-Stroke featuring serial number 1000000 and preserved in mint condition.

The Leica M3 is
considered the best 35 mm rangefinder camera ever made along with the Nippon
Kogaku Nikon SP and is a masterpiece of mechanical perfection with an
exceptionally bright and brilliant viewfinder and an amazingly quiet and
virtually vibration free cloth focal plane shutter boasting extraordinary accuracy, always with an almost inaudible
sound and working with an exceedingly short lag of 17 milliseconds between the moment
in which the shutter release button is pressed and the beginning of the
exposure, a remarkable achievement in comparison to usual shutter lags in the
range 80-100 milliseconds inherent to professional reflex cameras.

On the other
hand, the creation of the Leica M system together with the launching of the
Leica M3 camera in 1954 has been one of the greatest achievements in the
History of Photography, since between 1932 and mid fifties Zeiss Ikon had
managed to prevail in terms of quickness and ease of use and focusing precision
with its Contax II featuring a combined viewfinder and rangefinder (instead of
the independent RF and VF windows inherent to Leica screwmount cameras), an exceedingly
large rangefinder base of 90 mm (with a magnification of approximately 0.75x,
attaining an effective baselength of 67.5 mm) and its highly luminous lenses
designed by the genius Ludwig Bertele (specially the Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5
cm f/1.5, the Carl Zeiss Jena 5 cm f/2, the Carl Zeiss Jena Biogon 3,5 cm f/2.8
and the Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 8,5 cm f/2) delivering extraordinary resolving
power and contrast for the time and only matched by Professor Max Berek´s Leitz
Elmar 5 cm f/3.5, a true reference class standard lens with unequalled
compactness but featuring much less luminosity.

The impressive beauty of lines of the Leica Millionth M3 with its matching Leitz Wetzlar Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 with near focusing attachment is a relish to watch. Twelve years have elapsed since June 11th, 2001, when Westlicht Schauplatz für Fotografie opened in the Westbahnstrasse, 40 of Vienna (Austria), founded by its creator and driving force Peter Coeln through the private initiative of camera collectors and enthusiasts of top-notch photography, with the aim of enhancing the significance of photography both from a historical viewpoint and in terms of the relationship between photographic cameras and lenses and the art of photography. In all this time, Westlicht has become a world class reference as a camera gallery, picture gallery and very high quality selling point of new and vintage cameras, lenses and all type of accessories, simultaneously managing to likewise turn into a benchmark venue of photographic equipment and images auctions with its two already worldwide famous events Westlicht Camera Auction and Westlicht Photo Auction, and until now there have been twenty-four camera auctions and nine photo auctions.

But the arrival
of the Leica M System and the Leica M3 camera in 1954 meant a turning point from which the legendary Wetzlar based German photographic firm took
definitely the helm in the rangefinder domain that it has kept until nowadays throughout the amazing figure of sixty years, an unprecedented feat in the
history of photographic cameras and lenses, being even able to adapt it to the
digital era with the fulfilling of a dream come true: the Leica M9, Leica M9
Monochrom and Leica M Type 241 35 mm digital rangefinder cameras.

Not in vain, the
Leica M System of cameras and lenses has been and goes on being one of the most
perfect optical and mechanical breakthroughs ever made and whose fundamental
principles were set forth by Willi Stein (manager of the photographic design
department at Leitz during fifties and father of the Leica M camera concept), Hugo
Wehrenfenning (designer of the first Leica M lenses and inventor of the four
part M bayonet lens mount making possible a much faster change of objectives than with the screwmount Leica cameras, by means of a short 30º turn that locked each lens in position, and enabling that the farthest areas of the corners of the image
received the maximum amount of light coming from the optical system) and Dr
Ludwig Leitz who financed the project and was also decisive to its fulfilment with its astounding patents during the eighteeen previous years: patent August 3, 1935 (Photographic Camera with Parallax Correcting Finder), patent August 8, 1936 (Camera Shutter Mechanism with Willi Stein), patent September 2,1936 (Combined Rangefinder and Viewfinder), patent August 23, 1938 (Combined Rangefinder and Viewfinder) and patent May 9, 1939 (Photographic Viewfinder).

The Leica M3 serial number 1000000 was presented by Willi Stein to Dr Ludwig Leitz in 1960 and is one of the most important cameras in the history of the brand, to such an extent that it has been painstakingly preserved throughout more than fifty years and is presently in mint condition. It´s also the
fruit of twenty years of intensive research and tests dating back to1934 and which gave rise to the building
of the Leica IV Prototype in 1936, a full-fledged experimental forebear of the
Leica M3 camera.

On the other
hand, the rangefinder of the Leica M3, the cream of the crop of the RFs ever
made by Leica and entirely manufactured from top-notch glass, though not
featuring such a huge rangefinder base and effective baselength as the Contax
II, sports a still very big 69.25 mm RF base with an effective baselength of 63
mm and a 0.91x magnification finder begetting
fairly sharp images, and above all, the viewfinder of the Leica M3 is the best
ever made for a photographic camera and specially optimized for its flawless
synergy with 50 mm lenses, a sphere in which it hasn´t been beaten hitherto,
because albeit the viewfinders of both Contax II and Nikon SP are very good,
they´re colored and their RF spots are much less brilliant than the exceedingly
large, clear and accurate flare-free rangefinder spot featured by the extraordinary
viewfinder (designed by Erich Mandler, Heinrich Schneider and Robert Eckhardt) of the Leica M3 in perfect symbiosis with the likewise amazing rangefinder (created by Willi Stein and Dr Ludwig Leitz) of the camera, a work of art including more than 150 high
precision components.The bright-line frame for 50 mm lenses is
permanently visible in the viewfinder, while the ones for 90 and 35 mm objectives are activated
on being attached (the 0.92x VF magnification of the M3 makes necessary to add
an optical viewfinder attachment for the use of 35 mm lenses).

Needless to say
that this M3 rangefinder (whose frame lines are parallel to the body of the camera - unlike the ones belonging to the rest of M cameras which are in angle- and featuring a ground glass diffuser that makes possible the even illumination of the mask, reducing flare to negligible levels), the best ever made by Leica and integrated into the viewfinder, attains unmatched fast
and accurate focusing even under the worst light conditions, with the measuring
base of the rangefinder remaining the same irrespective of the lens
being used, which means a remarkable advantage over the dslr cameras,
particularly when using the widest apertures.

Thanks to its near focusing attachment the Leitz Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 DR matching the Leica M3 serial number 1000000 is able to focus up to 48 cm. This astounding lens was the first standard 50 mm objective delivering a resolving power of more than 100 pairs of lines/mm, also featuring a mechanical construction and gorgeous cosmetic appearance second to none.

Besides, the 7 elements in 5 groups Leitz Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 DR (the one with Near Focusing Attachment matching the millionth Leica M3 sold at Westlicht features the serial number 1834555) was a milestone within the scope of photographic lenses created for 24 x 36 mm format cameras from its very launching into market in 1956, because along with the Rigid Mount model (introduced the same year sporting identical reformulated design with respect to the collapsible Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 Version 1 from 1953) it managed to beat the Ludwig Bertele´s legendary designs CZJ 5 cm f/1.5 and CZJ 5 cm f/2 (which had reigned supreme during twenty-two years, between 1932 and 1954) thanks to the immense knowledge of Professor Helmut Marx, the use of four elements made with LaK9 top-notch optical glass and the help of the Zuse 5, the first computer optimized for lens designing, which had been installed in Wetzlar in 1952.And another key factor of this sensational 24th Camera Auction at Westlicht - in the same way as happened with the previous ones- is the thoroughness and reliability of the information on the auctioned articles provided in advance along with very stringent and accurate criteria as to the real condition of the items, which means full guarantee for the bidders from a number of different countries all over the globe. As an evidence of it, suffice it to say to name only an example that the Leica I Model C Luxus from 1930 which got a final hammer price of 504,000 euros was thoroughly inspected and authorized by James Lager, Ottmar Michaelly and Lars Netopil.

50 years later,
Lisl Steiner inside Westlicht Vienna by a copy on black and white photographic
paper of the picture she made in Times Square (New York) on November 22, 1963, a few hours
after John Fitzgerald Kennedy´s death was announced.

The
assassination, which happened in Dallas (Texas) on November 22, 1963, shocked
the world and had an exceedingly comprehensive coverage within the whole both
American and international press.

Throughout the
following three days after the assassination, the State Funeral developed.

Firstly, the
casket with JFK´s body was taken by the Air Force One aircraft from Dallas to
Washington D.C, his authopsy being made at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, being
subsequently transferred to the White House East Room on Saturday November 23,
1963 at 4:30 a.m, where the bier rested on a catafalque lying in state for 24
hours. The former United States presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight H.
Eisenhower along with Herbert Hoover Jr (representing his father the former
president Herbert Hoover, who was ill) arrived to express their condolences to
Jacqueline Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Senator Edward Kennedy and
the rest of JFK´s relatives.

The next day
Sunday November 24, 1963, the bier with John Fitzgerald Kennedy´s remains and
covered with the United States flag was borne on a caisson drawn by horses up
to the Rotunda of Capitolium for its lying in state and wake, and during the
whole day, hundreds of thousands of persons made very long queues to give their
last farewell to the slain president, whose coffin was custodied by an honour
guard.

A sepulchral
silence ruled the vigil (only interrupted by the eulogies delivered by Senate
Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, Chief Justice Earl Warren and
Speaker McCormack), with JFK´s coffin inside the Rotunda of Capitolium,
overcrowded with personalities of United States in different scopes, relatives
and friends of Kennedy family and a number of dignitaries from all over the
world who were arriving during the day.

50 years later.
Lisl Steiner at Westlicht Vienna by a copy on black and white photographic
paper of one of the pictures she made with Leica M2 and Leitz Canada Summicron-M 35 mm f/2
Version 1 SAWOM 11308 inside the Rotunda of Capitolium of Washington during the lying
in state and wake of the coffin with John Fitzgerald Kennedy´s human remains. In spite of the rather dim light conditions prevailing at the moment, she was able to shoot handheld at f/4 and a very low shutter speed of 1/8 sec thanks to the very compact size and weight of the Leica M2 and the tiny wideangle lens, along with the lack of a slapping mirror inherent to rangefinder cameras and the high for the time ISO 200 sensitivity of the 24 x 36 mm format Kodak Super-XX Safety Panchromatic black and white film used. This way, the photographer could get enough depth of field to render both the United States flag on the whole JFK´s coffin and the two members of the honour guard in focus. Lisl Steiner,
who was covering the State Funeral as a photographer for Keystone Press Agency,
spent all the night inside the Rotunda of Capitolium by her great friend
Cornell Capa (sent by Life) and could live the huge emotional intensity pervading
the event (presided by Kennedy family, the just sworn in new president Lyndon
Johnson, the members of the Congress and a lot of civil servants of the
American administration), getting some pictures both of John Fitzgerald
Kennedy´s bier and the atmosphere reigning within the symbolic building oozing
a remarkable architectural design, which also held among others the funerary
services for Abraham Lincoln.

On November 25,
1963, JFK´s coffin left the Rotunda of Capitolium and was taken in procession
(headed by Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy, Lyndon
Johnson, Lucy Baines Johnson, James Auchincloss, R. Sargent Shriver, Steven
Smith and some secret agents in protection tasks, while the fairly abundant
foreign dignitaries arrived from the five continents, walked behind them).

After a frantic
effort, Lisl Steiner manages to advance through the crowd and the security cordon
and photographs with her Leica M2 and her Leitz Canada Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 First Version
SAWOM 11308 well-known dignitaries from all over the world who have come to pay
their last respects to John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and walk towards St. Matthew´s
Cathedral. From left to right can be seen: Heinrich Luebcke (President of West
Germany), Charles de Gaulle (President of France), King Baodouin of Belgium,
Queen Frederika of Greece, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and Diosdado Macapagal (President of Philippines)

up to St.
Matthew´s Cathedral, where a Requiem Mass was held.

Then, when the
Mass finished, the casket with JFK´s body abandoned the cathedral and the
funeral procession began with everybody walking the streets of Washington D.C
towards the Arlington National Cemetery, where John Fitzgerald Kennedy was
buried in the midst of grief outpouring shared by all the attendees, among whom
there were 220 dignitaries coming from 92 countries.

Photograph made
by Lisl Steiner in which she captures the ceremony of folding flag over John
Fitzgerald Kennedy´s casket previous to its interment at Arlington National
Cemetery on November 25, 1963. Charles de Gaulle (President of France) and
Haile Selassie (Emperor of Ethiopia) are clearly visible in the middle of the
image. Ludwig Erhard (Chancellor of West Germany) is behind Haile Selassie,
while on his right appear Diosdado Macapagal (President of Philippines)
and Chung Hee Park (President of South Korea).

Just beyond the United States flag are Hayato Ikeda (Prime Minister of Japan)
and Herbert Charles Hoover Jr, son of the 31st President of the United States
Herbert Clark Hoover(who couldn´t attend the funeral because of illness).

King Baudoin I of Belgium is in the middle far right of the photograph, and in
front of him him are the Queen Frederika of Greece and Senator Edward Kennedy.

Jacqueline Kennedy is the woman with mourning black attire and veil nearest to
the camera, and the man by her on the right is Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

Jacqueline
Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Ted Kennedy begin to abandon Arlington National
Cemetery after the burial of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, being accompanied by
Chief Justice Earl Warren. The Leica M2 proves to be an excellent
photojournalistic working tool, particularly in symbiosis with the Leitz Canada Summicron Summicron-M
35 mm f/2 First Version SAWOM 11308 featuring 8 elements in 6 groups,

designed by
Walter Mandler at Leitz Canada factory in Midland (Ontario), following the classical Double-Gauss scheme but adding two further elements, with a weight of
only 150 g and highly miniaturized dimensions, which provided great comfort of
use along with a good quality at maximum aperture and superb quality stopping
down from f/4, as happens in this picture in which Lisl Steiner shoots at f/8
taking advantage of the plentiful natural light available. Presented at the Photokina Köln 1958, its optical formula including a lot of rare earth glasses and exotic coatings was optimized by Mandler to achieve best results at f/4 and f/5.6, being likewise a cult
lens, because of its famous and unique subtle gradation of the out of focus
areas, its gorgeous cosmetic beauty

and an exceptional mechanic construction greatly made by Hans Karl Wiese, an outstanding Leitz Canada fifties and
sixties specialist on the mounting of optical elements during the assembling
stage of the objectives and Horst Haseneier, a true optical genius sporting a
painstaking artisan profile and a consummate expert in the grinding and polishing
of those optical elements. In addition, already in 1957, Rudolf Seck, Head of
the Applications Laboratory at Leitz (Wetzlar), had made abundant tests with
several prototypes of this lens sent from Leitz Midland (Canada) to evaluate
its performance in real use by professional photographers (something that Leica
has always prioritized over the MTF graphs of its lenses on assessing their
true optical and mechanical virtues), realizing its amazing image quality, very
special fingerprint, versatility and duration keeping identical behavior during
a lot of decades of intensive use.

50 years later.
Lisl Steiner inside the Café of Schönbrunn Palace Gloriette in Vienna, by a
copy on black and white photographic paper of the picture made at Arlington
National Cemetery during the ceremony of folding flag some seconds before the
interment of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on November 25, 1963.